


Heelip Drafts (Unifinished, unedited Heelip)

by britepink



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drabbles, F/F, one shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:21:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28660137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/britepink/pseuds/britepink
Summary: Just some drafts I have that you all can check out! Tell me if you'd be interested in a full fic of some of these drafts of Lippie and Heekki.
Relationships: Jeon Heejin/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	1. The Sleepy General

**Author's Note:**

> these are raw drafts that are really more sample chapters of some concepts and playing with writing. Which ones do you like best and would like a full fic on?

“Lady Heejin—Princess,” Haseul’s thin voice comes to invade Heejin’s sleep.  
It’s still the earliest hours of dawn by the view of the pitch navy with white twinkling in specks between it.  
“Princess,” Haseul says again. There’s quiet urgency laces her normally calm voice.  
“Heejin.” There’s more emphasis on her name this time.  
The princess sits up slowly, shaking her bed hair around until it falls in a neat tumble of dark locks. One candle illuminates the vast room, giving sparse vision to only her maid. It’s far too early for this, but the older woman would only wake her if it was worthy. She turns to her, her voice still deep and honey dipped with a rich tone after sleep. “Haseullie, what is it?”  
“It’s Jungeun….” Haseul sighs.  
Heejin sits up a little straighter, her posture tensing. “What’s wrong? Has she left again? Is she injured?”  
The maid draws a deep breath with the shake of her head and touches her mistress’s forearm. “She’s here, in her assigned study, working. She won’t go to bed, no matter how much I ask she get rest.”  
“Oh…” Heejin gulps. “She’s just been gone for a month and a half. It’s her first night back, why would she not rest?”  
“She will not tell me. She looks so unwell, I want her to just lay down! She’s not going to recover from those wounds by staying up to such unreasonable hours. In the time I’ve known her, I’ve been aware of her wretched sleep patterns, but I saw her leaning against the wall for support early in the afternoon… Princess, can you please convince your fiancée to rest?!” Haseul’s eyes have widened in her hushed explanation, she’s clearly concerned.  
Heejin thinks about it, she has known Jungeun to be a horrid sleeper, hell, she’s even accompanied her late into the night on adventures. It’s obviously a problem how little she does rest considering how often Jungeun is sent to work out stressful situations with hundreds, thousands, of lives are at risk. The princess is sure that Jungeun has the dark bruises under her eyes permanently fixed on her countenance.  
Heejin had seen her fiancée earlier in the day, but only briefly. However, even with their short interaction, Heejin managed to see the stark, solid bandages beneath Jungeun’s shirt and poking around her collarbones where her shirt neck did not cover. Jungeun had also, momentarily relaxed in the embrace and leaned her weight into the other girl before bolting up right as they separated for their different duties. It was as if she fell asleep and was jerked awake.  
The princess rubs the edges of sleep that rest around her eyes, knowing she’s about to deal with a very stubborn princess general that will take all the prying in the world. She turns to Haseul. “I’ll go get her to bed, thank you, Haseul.”  
“Good luck my lady, you’ll need it.”  
Heejin pulls on her thin robe hanging beside her and walks through the cold halls to Jungeun’s assigned study. She is not exactly awake enough to have any other thoughts on how to get her fiancée to bed besides tug her by the arm and say 'let's go’.  
But of course it won’t be that easy.  
She walks into the study, stopping at the door frame to take in the situation. Jungeun sits in the soft glow of candles surrounded by books and parchment. She frantically scribbles on parchment looking half asleep already.  
“Jungeun, you should rest.” Heejin walks forward, her bare feet hitting the cold floor. She stands by Jungeun and places a hand on her shoulder.  
The general barely spares a look towards her fiancée with bloodshot eyes and pure misery etched onto her expression.“I’ve got work to do.”  
“Oh god,” The princess is taken aback by how horribly blunt the statement is and how terrible she looks. She tries,” You’ve just returned and you need rest. Curses, you look awful!”  
Jungeun rolls her shoulders and slumps back into her chair and finally makes solid eye contact with the other girl. “I’m aware.” She tries to laugh, but it hitches in her throat and she gives a weak cough. “War isn’t exactly pretty, Princess.”  
“Jungeun! Don’t joke around with me, it’s dastardly early in the morning. Please come to bed.” Heejin tugs on her arm to pull her out of the chair. “Your duties can be left long enough for you to rest.”  
Her fiancée hisses as Heejin has grabbed her where a recent injury was placed. “Heejin, ack! I have to write a letter to a duke and plot and plan for the coming weeks, double check supply lines, navigations, these need to be sent out as soon as possible to prevent us from losing more ground than we already have.” The last few sentences are said like bubbling hysteria.  
“Well those plots are no good to anyone when done by a deadbeat general!” Heejin retorts hotly. “When was the last time you slept?”  
Jungeun squints her eyes, her grimace increasing as she searches the foggy bay of her mind. “I-I—uh…. four days ago?”  
“You’ve only just returned and can’t even walk,” The princess sighs in frustration at the situation, the other royal has been inundated with an absurd amount of work. She strokes blonde’s well muscled arm. “Why can’t someone else do all this bullshit?”  
“There was a double agent within the Beta court. The whole Alliance is insisting only authorized personnel send letters or they won’t even look at them, my usual team has either been captured, in hiding, or back in my country.” Jungeun heaves a great breath and seems to look forward at what she wrote, but leans too far. Her head is aimed for the dead center of the solid oak desk because she’s too tired and lets it fall, but Heejin quickly steps in the way.  
“Oof…”  
The general’s head softly hits Heejin’s warm belly, she lets it rest there and her eyes struggle to pry open. It’s warm here, not cold like out on the front lines. The other smells like vanilla, not rotting flesh and enough raw blood to fill a river. There’s no screaming, it’s the quiet sound of the two princesses breathing and Heejin’s heartbeat. There’s no fighting for just one more day alive. She’s safe here. Jungeun’s aching muscles, so cramped and taught, seemingly melt into the warm body in front of her.  
It’s her first night out of dozens that she isn’t actually on a war front, yet all she could think of was the battlegrounds. Her grimace returns as she wraps her arms around Heejin’s waist to steady herself, both her body and mind are in need of support. She calls quietly forward,” I have more matters to tend to tomorrow that cannot be changed, but if I sleep now, I may not wake up until next week…”  
Heejin is tempted to stiffen as she realizes the Ibian princess is letting her guard down. It’s been so long since they had had one of those magical talks about everything in the world and they had both been on such edge. It feels like for once the world might just try to wait for them, Heejin just needs Jungeun to wait too.  
They’re posed in an intimate position, anyone looking in would not doubt they were in a relationship. It’s close.  
Jungeun’s face is buried in her soft robe with labored breaths. “God, I’m so exhausted…” It comes out vulnerable and weak, like a word after holding one's breath too long and choking out. It’s like a cry for help.  
Heejin hesitates before with a certain gentleness, slings her arms around the other girl’s shoulders. “Okay… we’ll figure something out, we’ll find a way to get the work done without it all falling on you. You’re too important to be lost in piles of homework like this. We can talk about it more in the morning with my parents. Let’s go to bed, Jungie.”  
“I-I…” the other mutters into her belly.  
Heejin gives finality into her tone. “Let’s go.”  
She receives no words, only a head nod into her belly. With that, she pulls the general up by the shoulders, getting leaned on by the taller girl in the process.  
Heejin has no choice but to drag Jungeun’s left arm across her own shoulders as they make shakey steps out the study door.  
Their feet make an awkward rhythm that makes little sense. There’s not much coordination besides the idea of propelling forward as one shakes between consciousness and sleep with every clunk they make down the hall.  
When they make it to Jungeun’s room, the owner proceeds to the wardrobe to take off her shirt, before turning back with a hoarse voice. “You can go…”  
Heejin scoffs. “There’s no way I’m leaving you, you stubborn effing pack mule. You’ll probably find something else to work on if I don’t force you to sleep, I’ll stay.”  
“Okay then.” Her fiancée turns back and unbuckles her remaining armor. Her gauntlets drop with thick sounds to the floor followed by her boots being kicked aside. A drawer is opened as a pair of mens sleep clothes are pulled out. She attempts to slide her shirt over her head, but it’s clear her injuries cause her muscles to beg her not to proceed. She gives a tense hiss as she again tries to remove the article of clothing.  
“Let me help,” Heejin mutters into her ear behind her. She grasps the hem of the shirt, taking ginger hold to raise Jungeun’s arms as she takes the shirt off and lets it float to the floor with a soft ‘poof’’.  
She grabs the sleep shirt, maroon and silky in her loose grasp while Jungeun unbinds her chest, letting the cloth strips fall to the floor leaving only her skin and bandages above her trousers. Her left shoulder is where the bandages are thickest, padding for whatever damage has occurred. There’s smaller areas like when plasters are used for when Heejin pulled the parchment too quickly. However parts of Jungeun’s skin have larger areas of rougher skin which show previously healed wounds.  
Most of all there’s lines, lines of white and thickened skin in jagged formations everywhere. The harsh marks dare ruin the flow that Jungeun’s anatomy should have. She’s a well muscled, well seasoned soldier making her body a sculptor’s ideal model, but the scars go as they please with disregard of what they’ll make of the body they’re inflicted on. They were meant to kill with no intention to let Jungeun live.  
Yet here she stands, sore and breathing, full of exhaustion, but here.  
Heejin mutters out,”Lift your arms.”  
She shifts to slide the shirt onto the other, making brief eye contact with Jungeun who gives a lazy smile as thanks. Jungeun removes her trousers and puts on her sleep shorts by herself. Her socks are taken off and tossed aside as she turns around holding a white long sleeve shirt. “Put this on, it’s going to get cold.”  
“Really?” Heejin gives a breathy laugh when the dense article of clothing is thrown onto her head. It’s soft from so many wears and being stretched by the general’s muscles. She gives a humorous tilt of her head upward towards Jungeun even though her eyes are covered. “Help me! It’s not fair, I helped you and you leave me to put this on myself?”  
Jungeun’s calloused hands take the shirt off of her fiancée’s head and into her hands,” Ah, better than leaving you to freeze, Princess.” Jungeun has more to say but just throws the shirt back and ungraciously flops onto the bed.  
The general’s muscles start to relax and release the firm tightness they’ve held for far too long. Jungeun is safe here. She can rest. She lets her mind blank, the overwhelming plans and prep she has to do exits with each exhale. The sheets are soft and the comforter heavy as Heejin lays it on her and crawls under it from the other side of the bed.  
Heejin is here.  
They’re safe. Jungeun can rest.  
But the general hasn’t always been safe. Just two weeks ago she was busy fighting again and she’d surely leave for something else soon. There’s always fresh blood on her hands, a heavy breath, bags under her eyes, someone behind her back, more to do. But here she can rest.  
She can rest, right?  
She wakes up with a start, launching forward with a gasp pouring out of her mouth. Her breathing is ragged with countless images she’s tried so hard to forget. It hurts. She doesn’t even feel like she’s fallen asleep, she just blinked and now she’s awoken.  
There’s no sign of passed time, it’s still dark.  
Jungeun sighs and rests her head in her hands, there’s a dull throb, and those images….  
Blood. Swollen bodies. Children, children screaming for their parents. Women, crying to be helped as wretched men took them with plans of bedding them against their will. Chains being placed around dogs’ necks with no good intentions. Starving people with hollow cheeks, so ill their skin stretched around their bones—  
“Jungeun…”.  
A gentle hand lays on her shoulder.  
“Jungie, what’s wrong?” Heejin calls, sleep dripping from her voice. “Are you okay?”  
Jungeun pats the other girl’s hand. “I’m fine, Heejin….”  
“I don’t believe you, come back to bed.”  
How?  
How was she supposed to go to bed when all those screams called out for her to save them? There were angry men yelling for their children and wives and those children calling for food and those wives screaming to be put out of their pain.  
Jungeun just wanted to be put out of her pain. Her body was sore and mutilated, always aching and crying for rest she’d never get. When she tried to rest, she was plagued with vivid memories and images so terrifying she could not rest. Her mind was worked raw and she was falling apart in such a cycle.  
She could deal with her physical exhaustion, but she could not deal with her mind wandering back to the marks of war.  
Her voice comes out tense. “I’ve got to go back to work.”  
Heejin lets out a meowl of protest. “Nonsense… it’s been twenty minutes since you laid down. You’re sleeping until the sun is high in the sky.”  
“Heejin—I have work to do—“  
“No.” Heejin says firmly before yawning. She grabs her fiancée by the shoulders and pushes her backwards onto the bed. “Lay down.”  
“Heejin—“  
“Lay down.”  
She lays back with a huff, sensing the other will not relent. She’ll just have to sneak out when Heejin falls back asleep—  
Heejin knows exactly what she’s thinking as she lays her head on the general’s shoulder and lays a heavy arm over her waist. “I’m a light sleeper.”  
Jungeun gives a gruff hum as the other falls asleep. She’s slowly left back to her own thoughts, tensing. She needs to get out of here and do something. Anything but think. She shivers and tries to think of normal things.  
What do normal people think of? Heejin thinks of food, horses, literature…. the general hasn’t read a good book in forever, but sometimes Heejin writes poetry and speaks it aloud on their night walks. Her words remind her of silk, stars, a soft breeze, and a steely, stony, stare that could cut into you.  
Heejin often touched her own hair while doing mundane tasks. A hand brushing through to sort out the wisps that fell forward and push the wave of dark brown hair aside. It always looked so soft in their sunset walks.  
Jungeun’s hand forms a fist looking down at the mass of lush silk in front of her. Dark tresses that wave and bounce. Her hand slowly uncurls and she lightly moves it to touch Heejin’s fine locks.  
They’re small strokes, back and forth, feeling the strands separate with her fingers. It’s calming really, as Jungeun wonders how one’s hair could be so impossibly lustrous.  
“Mmhmm…. I like that…” Heejin mumbles into her shoulder as she further burrows into the general.  
Jungeun doesn’t respond and thinks of how she feels the tresses spread like thick liquid.  
Separate, flow. Separate, flow. Tangle. Separate, flow. Speparare, flow. Tangle.  
She falls asleep still wondering how hair could be so close to satin.


	2. The Nice Demon & the Mean Angel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 1920’s Divine and Corrupt beings on a strange first meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Demons are referred to as Others, Angels as Divines. This is a really ill drabble--
> 
> Heaven is just the lawmakers here, not particularly great. There was more depth in this story, but I couldn't get through it in time.
> 
> Enjoy what you can, thanks

Heejin thinks she’s a good angel, genuinely. Her ethereal beauty so finely crafted due to her heavenly origins make it easy for the mortals to be swayed. Her deeper voice is assuring to the mortals that their decisions are sound and for good.  
She’s a good angel.  
She’s moved through the ranks, taking on more challenging assignments, and eventually transferring to a whole new Heavenly department, De-Corruption and Rebuilding of Morals or the DRM.   
It’s only her second assignment in the department, somewhere in early 1920’s New York when she finally sees an Other. A demon. It’s been a while since she’s been in such vile presence.   
The functions between the Others and the Angels were always stark in Heejin’s mind. The demons were different, malicious, evil, unthoughtful creatures that should hold no similarity with the Angels. They were the other beings that acted as their mal counterparts.  
She had always held the average young angel’s naivety. She believed what the higher ups said. The Others caused chaos and havoc and it was Heaven and Eden’s job to stop it from infecting the mortal world.   
This Other, in New York planted a seed of doubt and the snake took a bite.   
She was tempting with a hardened, carved face with deep structure that read sharp. Her hair was a sanded brown, flowing in illegally silky waves, almost as fine as divine spun hair. Her body was long, but well muscled from fighting for her own life against her own kind.   
There were a few nasty scars from the fights too. Demon’s retractable claws left horrid permanent marks on someone, no matter their form. They were rugged raised flesh patterns, particularly one on her neck and below her left eye.   
Oh gods, her eyes.   
They were intricate pieces of art, yet a part of a cursed life form. Her eyes were so full of depth, one could see the bottom of Hell in them. The curious thing about them was one was the lightest brown of chestnuts ripened and tumbled to the ground, and the other was a bright green.  
When Heejin had first seen the Other she nearly forgot what she was to do. She felt the pull of Hell and the Other like a chain tugging at her. Hell’s charm was a real thing. It was bloody temptation and she could not stand it. Heejin was a good angel with large plans of improving the mortal world. She would not fall to simply looking at the Other and taking action.   
Procedure for encountering their beastly counterparts varied. If there was mortal life and or fate at risk, action would be imperative, but it was heavily advised that no other worldly methods would be used. If there was little threat, engagement was not required, let it pass. The Heavens had the world in a tight grasp, the Others were only occasional nuisances individually. They were lawless creatures.   
Heejin narrows her eyes at the Other, assessing the situation. There were no mortals here, it was a park late at night. No one would know an unworldly battle would occur, the lights were all out.   
The Other itself is standing in a tailored grey plaid suit, it had patches on a shoulder and other areas. A red tie like her eye showed out between the blazer and a red handkerchief in the breast pocket.   
How pretentious of her.   
Heejin herself is dressed in a drop waist dress of itchy cotton in a dull, ugly grey. She should’ve opted for the mens clothing as well, but the Heavens sparsely gave choice of wear. They delegated that as long as the angels blended in with the times, comfort was not a matter to be concerned with. It was such an uncomfortable outfit in mortal flesh.   
Her focus flicks back to the Other who is checking a wrist watch and muttering to herself. She looks up to see an owl.  
“Hello, old friend.” The owl lands on the Other’s sleeved arm. “How are you?”  
The owl coos to its supposed companion in some response.   
“Ah,” the Other sighs with a twinged sadness. “I’m afraid, my friend, we’ve got a lot of work here. You have a long journey, I need you to see Jinsoul down in Georgia. Can you give this to her?”  
The demon pulls out a parcel and letter from inside her blazer. The owl takes it in its talons—  
“Stop right there!” Heejin yells and steps from the shadows and into the dull moonlight. “I have to intercept this package, you will not send it!”  
The Other gives a look of surprise that shifts to recognition of her divine counterpart. “Oh, hello there.”  
The angel is taken aback by the casual remark, she’s never gotten a demon that wasn’t aggressive. She steps forward in a defense stance. “Stop that, you’re under the Heavenly Authority. Don’t send that package.”  
“Ah, this.” The Other says with an amused look. She turns to the owl,” Labrum, go on, go to Jinsoul. Come back soon and have a good journey.”   
“Stop that!” Heejin shouts and pulls out, draws from her veins a clean blade of light. It’s divine weaponry taking the purity within the angel and summoning a beam. It’s cool and white as it’s summoned into her hand and she readies to throw it. Her arm draws back and aims at the owl—  
But the Other comes forward quickly and pushes her back, a firm, hot grip is on her wrist. The heat almost hurts as it restrains her from throwing her light. They struggle against each other, cold weight against hot, restrictive strength as the owl flies away.   
“Get off!” Heejin yells, squirming around the hot arms that keep her locked away. Her fists are held too close to her body for her to summon her draws of light without hurting herself. “Let me go! What was in that letter?! Tell me!”  
The Other laughs unsteadily, looking down at heavenly being trying to break free of her grip. “No can do, Angel. That’s an important letter on even more important business.”  
“I swear—I will kill you! I don’t care if you’re immortal filth!” Heejin yells in the demon’s face. In the most ungraceful way possible, she thwacks her head against the Other’s head. There’s a sharp throb in her own, but she’s clearly hurt her taller opponent by the way she sucks back her bottom lip, presumably sucking the blood up. Unfortunately Heejin is still trapped as the heated grip around her tightens like a vice.   
“Ow! What the hell?!” The demon finally shouts back.  
“Let me go!”   
-“I will, I will! Just hold on—“  
—“HEY!” Someone else booms.   
The two immortal beings startle up at the other voice. They freeze in their physical squabble, despite the discomfort. Heejin grips onto one of the Other’s forearms and onto part of her blazer.   
“You two there! What are you doing out there? What’s going on?!” The voice comes closer until he’s yards away. Heejin can sense it’s a mortal man, tall and stern. He’s got one of those ugly mustaches and an obnoxious lantern shone in the pair’s face.  
The pair are in a tensed grip.   
“Do something, Angel.” The demon whispers in her ear.  
Heejin mutters back up to her ‘companion’. “I can’t, why can’t you?”  
“What?” The demon’s eyes expand. “I can’t, while I have charms and charisma, I don’t have on demand influences, don’t you? Make the mortal go away.”  
“No,” Heejin says more forcefully. “I don’t have much more than that either! Mortals need to make their own decisions, I can’t convince them if I’m using influences.”  
The Other gives her a more confused look. “That negates the rest of your powers?”  
“Yes!” Heejin whisper-screams. “I’d have to go to higher ups!”  
The mortal clears his throat, coming closer with the lantern. “Ladies, is there a problem?”  
The two look at each other, neither of them even have powers and they’re stuck with an overly nosy human man who lickes his lips every two seconds.   
The angel looks at the taller, silently asking what the heavens they’re going to do.  
The demon stares back for half a second before mumbling lowly. “We can get out of this without powers. Now, what’s your name?”  
“What?”  
“Angel, I don’t have time for this.” She says loudly, sparing a suddenly charming look and a pointed look at the man before her gaze darts back. She says back hoarsely. “Last chance before I kill the mortal, what’s your name?”  
“Heejin.” The shorter says quietly.   
A thank you is said in the Other’s gaze as she releases her grip, taking off the blazer jacket. Heejin is promptly coaxed (forcefully) into the hot blazer as the demon turns to the man again. “I’m Jungeun, good evening sir. What seems to be the problem?”  
Heejin is suddenly shifted, her and the demon pressed side to side as they face the other being. A hot arm is placed over her shoulder.   
The man narrows his eyes. “I’m the police. There seemed to be an argument over here and I’m here to make sure everything is alright. Everything okay? Everything okay? Alright?”  
His words are slow and condescending. He’s held uptight with his own ego and his exaggerated self importance. He steps closer and holds the lantern inches away from Heejin’s face with a sour tobacco breath.   
It’s suddenly pushed away Jungeun shoves the man back with one arm. “Officer, Sir, we’re fine. My fiancée and I were just arguing over whether or not to invite her parents or not to the wedding. They aren’t the most approving, but I think it’s important to at least give them the option of coming and seeing such an important moment in her life.”  
Heejin resists the urge to tense up and gives a shy nod of indifference while thinking what in the heavens this tainted creature is planning.   
The officer raises an eyebrow and gives a look of utter bewilderment. “What?”  
Jungeun gives a dry laugh. “Just a love bird argument.”  
“It’s late, hardly time for two women to be out and about in streets like this.” He says.   
“As a fellow officer,” Jungeun gives a smug smile. “I think we’re fine.”  
“What are you thinking?” Heejin says into her ear harshly.   
The officer gives a shitted look at them with wet lips and suspicious eyes.   
The confident Other gives a knowing look and pulls a flap of leather holding a medal. “Detective Kim, or Jungeun Kim, I’m in the uptown precinct five.”  
“Ah...oh… I’m Officer Park… Officer, Park, just Park for now. I’m in the far downtown precinct, twenty seven. Ever need a hand, hit me up.” Park says sheepishly. He clears his throat at being outranked and looks away, pulling a pipe out of his coat and nodding at the fake couple. “Well, good luck on the um, wedding. Have a good night now…”  
He wobbles off leaving only his tobacco smoke as a trace as he continues whatever patrol he was on.   
The demon and angel wait five minutes before anything happens as his footsteps fade.   
After the five minutes Heejin quickly slinks off the Other’s arm and pulls out her blade of light. She moves quickly so not to be trapped in another heated cage and stabs it through the demon’s left forearm.   
“Agh! What the hell, Heejin?!” She shouts and pulls her arm back, stumbling to sit on the edge of the fountain. The light is clear through her forearm, sticking through each side with a glow, oozing red blood quickly.   
Heejin shoots back. “Is your name even Jungeun, demon?”  
“Yes! Argh! Is your name even Heejin?!” Jungeun groans in pain as she holds onto her arm. “I just saved us from getting arrested in the mortal world and you stab me with Holy Light?! I’m a demon and I would never stoop so low!”   
“My name is Heejin, but I still don’t know what was in that letter and parcel you sent off with the owl, Jungeun.” Heejin says hotly and approaches the tainted creature. She grabs a fistful of brown hair and forces Jungeun’s head up to stare into the red and brown eyes. “What was in it?”  
Jungeun looks too distracted with the pain the light is inflicting. It’s holy, it should be freezing, sucking all the hellfire from her veins and depleting her mortal body’s life force. She chokes out,” Heejin, Angel—it’s nothing that concerns whatever mission you’re on, you don’t care about them anyways.”  
The holy being’s brow furrows and she takes hold of the light, unbothered. She’s one with the cold piece of purity, it does not harm her. She grips it tightly and twists the blade towards herself. She speaks slowly. “Jungeun, try that again. Tell me the truth. What was in that parcel?”  
“It doesn’t concern your line of work, Angel.”  
She twists the blade the opposite direction. She keeps going as more and more blood and pained cries come.   
“No—“ Jungeun is twisting in pain, sweat dripping from her brow as she struggles against the angel. But she’s being weakened as the cold blade draws more and more of her away. Her strength is feigning the longer Heejin has that stupid look and keeps the blade in.   
“Tell me.”  
“No. Please, get off. I might pass out.”   
Heejin is getting frustrated as the Other is still resisting. If only she had her charms to see the truth or compel the truth to tumble out the hot mouth. She resorts to speaking and twisting once again. “Your red eye, you aren’t pure enough to fully merge with the mortal world? That’s why you can never fully be disguised.”  
“Yes… yes…” Jungeun pants, getting more pale by the minute.  
“I’ve seen other demons with both eye colors successful in transforming colors.” Heejin starts to pry with the tainted being. “Are you even more defective?”  
“Good god—“ Jungeun finally has enough.  
She uses whatever strength she has left and brings her right hand to the divine being’s throat with a hot, black blade. “Get the hell of me, Angel.”  
Obsidian. Heavy, black stone, forged in the hottest of Hells. Corrupted light. It’s shiny like glass and gives off the blackest of blacks, the opposite of light.   
Jungeun shoves Heejin off of her and looks up. “The information I sent out was news on a mortal gang and its associates that were interfering with some of plans my colleague and I had. We’re trying to change what—“  
—“Like the graces I’ll believe that.” Heejin responds. She’s slightly on edge from the obsidian dagger her opponent holds. “You probably only want to bring rot. What are you trying to change?”  
“I will tell you if you pull your damned light out and help me get back to my home!” Jungeun yells and instead of stabbing Heejin through the throat with the obsidian, she uses her fist gripping it to punch the angel backwards. “It’s not a serious thing I’m involved with and I’ll tell you. Just help me get back to my residence, please.”  
Heejin scoffs. “Why would I do that, Other?”  
“Divine being,” the demon starts. “I’ve just saved you a delay in your mission and possibly going to higher ups. I think you owe me.”  
“Oh, do I?”  
“Yes—“  
“—You said you were going to kill that mortal.”  
There’s a roll of red and brown eyes. “I was trying to get you to take action! I wasn’t going to kill that man. I don’t kill mortals.”  
She doesn’t believe the other being for a second. They’re lying, unlawful creatures. Her, owe a tainted being? Whatever would the Heavens think? “I don’t believe you and I’m hardly in debt to you—“  
—“Ack, I an running out of life force—out of time. Besides, what were you going to do? Aren’t you supposed to be sympathetic beings?” Jungeun pants. “You’re supposed to be just and kind, won’t it look good for you to help another being? Help me and I’ll tell you all about my mission.”  
Heejin gives a moment of thought. “Fine.”


	3. Lowkey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungeun and Heejin stark fwb, non explicit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> inspired by ‘lowkey’ by Niki

Heejin first sees Jungeun around campus at their university. They share the same dance class in the department of practical dance and literature period, but that’s it. Despite their mutual classes, they do not, however, ever cross paths.   
Their friends are wildly crossing paths every other minute though. Jiwoo knows Jungeun through what sounds like the sweetest, most wonderful childhood. They unfortunately don’t have as much time to hang out with how different their schedules are. But when Jiwoo comes to pick Heejin up for lunch, she typically races to hug Jungeun who returns the affection with a fond look.   
Jiwoo also likes Sooyoung, another student in their class that Jungeun hangs out with. Jiwoo had animatedly talked over one of their lunch sessions about how Jungeun is going to help set them up. They were to go on a few hang-out dates with Jungeun and someone else and Jiwoo was recommending that Heejin come too.  
“Heekki, please!”   
“Ah, Jiwoo, please no. I have better things to do than go on a double date with you and them.” Heejin rolled her eyes and taking a hefty bite off her turkey sandwich before humming with satisfaction.  
The taller girl hits her in her side and screaming,”I bought you that sandwich! You owe me!”  
“No, you bought that to break even for the coffees I bought you. Find someone else to do it, I have to prepare for an econ test that day anyways.” Heejin huffs and continues to chew with content.   
“Heejin,” Jiwoo sighs. “You’re such a heathen, when was the last time you got laid?—“  
The shorter shoots back. “Oh so you want me and Jungeun to hook up?”  
“Hey!” Jiwoo frowns adorably. “I mean sure, if you’re both feeling it, sure. But I’m just saying you should get laid to be less tense. You should also be way more excited about hooking up with Jungeun anyways.”  
Heejin heaves a sigh. “I don’t care about any relationships right now. Besides, Jungeun probably isn’t my type.”  
Her friend cocks an eyebrow at that. “Excuse me? What do you actually know about Jungeun?”  
“I-I-uhm, she’s blonde-ish-not my type.”  
“So maybe her hair is kinda blonde-ish brown and definitely not bubble gum pink, but she’s athletic, a good dancer, and on the swim team. She’s taller than you, smart enough, but humble.” Jiwoo narrows her eyes in annoyance. “Please Heekki! It’s not even a date for you two!”  
“Dude, no. Get someone else please. I’ve got shit to do.”  
That was the end of the conversation. Declined double date and so forth.  
There’s also a certain Hyejoo that is apparently dating a certain Chaewon. Hyejoo was another place for Jiwoo to get set up with Sooyoung, but was obviously not a go to, even if she was desperate. Hyejoo had this mysterious and fuck off attitude not to be touched except for Chaewon.

And now Heejin is here in a party and Jungeun is here too. There’s people and way too much alcohol for any reasonable person’s liking. Of course they aren’t reasonable, they’re college students where the furthest one will look ahead is tomorrow’s hang over, who to smash, and finals.   
Jiwoo is kind of tipsy and following Sooyoung with the most desperate look Heejin has ever seen. She just wants to drink and hook up, it’s kind of been a while for her.   
She wanders through the crowd, everybody is kind of just college average attractive, spare a few here and there. They’re even less attractive with the sweat coating them as the ride to the harsh rhythm that tries to drown out the heavy pelting rain.   
Heejin is tipsy and has questionable sobriety as she feels herself loosen and get lost in the crowd, swaying with the rest of the world. Maybe it’s the weed in the air. She swings herself towards the drink bar-table in one corner of the room and sees fucking Kim Jungeun talking to a blonde upperclassmen, something Jinsoul who has her arm touching her bicep. Heejin stumbles her way over to Jiwoo’s best friend when Jinsoul leaves with a flirty eyebrow which Jungeun gives a slightly annoyed look to…? Heejin is either too excited, drunk, high, or any combination of insanity to care.   
Jungeun is going edgy and looks pretty hot right now. She’s got a short sleeve button down that crops to her toned stomach along with torn up, way too, like—illegally tight skinny jeans, her brown hair in a messed up ponytail. The two buttons undone at the top of the shirt letting her collar slide open to let her collarbones breathe is fucking attractive. There’s also goddamn suspenders hanging at her waist, suspenders. It’s fucking hot. Heejin can totally see why Jiwoo thought Jungeun was a prince when she first saw her.   
“Jungeun,” Heejin smirks into place next to her target. She sits on a bar stool by where Jungeun had suddenly moved.   
The fine ass prince turned her head to her left to see who called her. “Heejin?”  
“Yeah, Jiwoo’s friend.” The shorter one reaches her hand out. “I see you now and then, but I don’t think we’ve met formally.”  
Jungeun gives a fond smile,” You think a party like this is formal?”  
“Well, maybe that wasn’t the best way to phrase it.” Heejin quips with a dangerously playful edge. “I mean, we’ve never had a proper conversation beyond hello.”  
“Let’s go beyond hello then, and Jiwoo and our venn diagram of friends for that matter.” Jungeun gives this crazy curious and tempting look. “We’re a blank canvas.”  
Heejin nods,”Alright then...Then let’s paint.”  
Their cups bash into each other as they cheer to a new greetings and drink.  
The taller starts them off in a ping pong match of questions and conversations. Who’s older, birthday’s included. They’re favorite colors, Heejin likes pink, Jungeun likes red. Favorite animal, a bunny and an owl. They both agree that their dance instructor is cool as hell and their literature teacher is vastly reminiscent of an ugly hippo. Jungeun thinks sports are about the experience and growth, Heejin likes winning. Heejin’s dad is a cop, Jungeun’s dad is in jail (a large ‘oh’ came from the shorter girl and a shrug from the other). One likes caligraphy while the other has handwriting best described as “sophisticated chicken scratch”.  
Time is passing quickly as they pass back and forth their little bits and pieces of their lives. It could be a transaction of information if it weren’t for their chemistry. Something between genuine care or curiosity, flirting, or provocation. It was startlingly natural for them, especially the flirty comments they’ve been making.  
“What’re you thinking about?” Jungeun asks in a sultry voice when her partner stares off.   
“Wonder what I’ll do when the cops come through.” The shorter chirps. The party was definitely getting worse, people are screaming and passing out, there’s noises from the pool outside, footsteps from the roof...  
“What about when the whiskey runs out?” The older the looks away with a chuckle. “Oh, honestly… ” The younger drawls. “Well, I’ve been looking at you since half past two, you wanna take this downtown?” She gives a hard stare before adding,” Sorry, liquid courage makes me a little too honest.”  
Jungeun’s phone pings with a picture of the previously mentioned blonde smiling in a mirror selfie along with a slu of texts. She heaves a sigh before sliding them away.   
Heejin continues,”Put your phone on vibrate, you’re killing the vibe. We can catch a better one with it off and the sun down.”  
“Really? You’ve got that much of a ‘vibe’?” Jungeun challenges.  
“Hell yeah.”  
That’s all it takes for Heejin to sloppily surge forward from her bar stool to crush her lips into the taller girl. Her right hand finds purchase in Jungeun’s hair and the other on her suspenders.   
They’re making out. Heejin is fucking making the shots tonight. Jungeun seems here for the ride.   
Electric like the lightning and thunder outside. The way they move with and for each other, it’s a little drunk, a little crazy and impulsive and the perpetrator loves every fucking second of this. So does the victim, especially when the shorter girl bites her lip until it bleeds while simultaneously bringing the hand on her suspenders to stroke along her stomach. This is so fucking—  
Jungeun pulls back, not at the bite (that was hella amazing), but when she hears familiar laughter of Jiwoo—  
Heejin, shocked at the lessened support tilts (falls) forward into her sexy prince of the night and wraps her arms around the broad swimmer’s shoulders. She whispers at the shell of her ear,“ Why’d you stop?”   
When she gains no reply she asks again because where they were was just so fucking good. “Jungeun?” Her hand strokes the bare skin of her stomach again.  
Jungeun responds to the touches, though she tries to hide the shiver. “Yeah, sorry. We’re a little too fucked up to stay still.”  
“Do you want to stay still?” The younger asks, pinching skin in challenge.  
The taller yelps out and has an arm looped at Heejin’s waist to keep them from toppling over. “No, just be quiet, if a drunk Jiwoo or Sooyoung sees—“  
“They’re just gonna blow shit up.” They say at the same time.   
The two simper to each other. Now Heejin truly does not fucking care if Jinsol and Jungeun are a thing or if the swimmer is taken at all. She mumbles hotly,” I just thought I’d let you know the bedroom at my place is vacant.”  
“Oh, hell yeah.” The swimmer echoes, no one has got to know. “Just us until the sun starts wa—“  
Heejin grabs her wrist and yanks her out into the cold night on their way to her apartment.   
...  
Neither of them brought a fucking car and it’s fucking raining. The taller forcefully shrugs the shorter girl into her jacket for the sake of kindness. It makes Heejin laugh at how dramatic they are, whipping their hair around as they run through the empty streets.  
They make out when cars pass, loud honks come for them to pay attention when they have the right away. Heejin’s hands never leave the swimmer’s body, clinging to her waist, her arms, her neck to pull further in.  
Jungeun keeps contact too, gripping onto Heejin’s sleeve causing her arm to follow and contort wherever the other girl’s spontaneous hands choose. It makes them chuckle and smile into toothy, hilariously drunk kisses.   
Heejin thinks if she saw them right bow she would think them a drunk in love couple, but they barely know each other. They only know baseline facts to have enough trust to go and screw each other, and maybe enough chemistry or decency to keep in contact afterwards.   
The alcohol wasn’t actually as strong as the shorter girl had thought, she’s fairly sure they were only bold because they’re both horny as hell.  
The pair reach the ninth floor to Heejin’s apartment. They have a continuous steamy moment in the elevator and they both startle when it dings and rush out.   
The keys are jammed in, aggressively turned to the point of the key almost breaking and pulled out again. A sock should go on the door knob in case Hyunjin changes her plans tonight, but Heejin shrugs it off.  
They barely make it to the bedroom, smacking around and fumbling each other’s clothing. They apparently have both not been laid lately and definitely need it. Ups the only direction this night could possibly go.   
The shorter girl humms when lips are placed insistently on her neck as she starts to unbutton Jungeun’s shirt. “Mmhm, Jungeun—“  
“Yes?” It comes out like a suggestive, teasing tone.  
Heejin shrugs off the swimmer’s shirt off of her broad shoulders and calls clearly. “Let’s just, let’s keep this lowkey. There’s no problems this way. Just physical.”  
Jungeun looks up with an eyebrow raised, half serious, half amused as she’s pushed onto the king sized bed. “Okay, lowkey.” She takes glances at the elaborate posts and canopy of the bed above them. “Okay, princess, let’s just have fun.”  
Heejin throws her shirt off and sits herself atop Jungeun’s lap. “Correction.”  
“Oh?”  
“It’s not princess.”  
Another raised eyebrow. “Queen?”  
Heejin smashes her lips into the other  
girl,” Hell yeah.”  
“That’s stupid and cliche—“  
“Shut up.”  
They just have to keep it lowkey.

…

The night goes well.  
Jungeun, Heejin delegates, is everything Jiwoo had described, even in bed. She’s patient in figuring out what the other girl likes, kind in giving it, and really athletic.  
They go a few times and it’s very enjoyable for both of the girls. They learn from each other to find what works and doesn’t, they’re eager, but not forceful, rough where it counts and gentle when it matters.   
One of the things that Heejin finds particular interest is marring, absolutely bruising Jungeun in the bits of skin within her access. She becomes aware of how harsh she’s being when a particular hickey is placed on her collarbone and she sees it later. It’s purple and beautiful, the burst capillaries popping off of her pale skin.   
She sees light tan lines on Jungeun’s shoulders, a swimsuit tan that never faded even in winter. She immediately pulls her mouth back realizing that Jungeun is very much a swimmer who very much exposes a lot of her body for sake of her sport. From there she decides to give lighter hickeys with a little (lot) of disappointment, but keeps considerate.   
Heejin wakes up with them weirdly mix matched together. She’s fitting herself besides the bruises on the swimmer's neck, breath tickling the marks. She has one arm wedged beside her own head and the other stiff and curled towards her chest. Her legs are splayed out in a backwards arch away from the other girl. She’s freezing cold and Jungeun is very, very warm. She brings her stiff arm to Jungeun’s waist and tucks her legs neatly so they’re warmed up by the other pair in bed. She’s just drifting off again when she feels the older girl move her hand to pet Heejin’s hair softly.  
Sleep drunken, the younger remembers vaguely how nice it is to have someone hold onto her again, share themselves in bed. She doesn’t typically get a cuddle session in post sex, it’s typically, ‘Nope. This was nice, I’ll be on my way, have a nice life.” She wonders if this lowkey thing could happen again.  
She wakes up again to holding a pillow instead of the older girl. She swallows her disappointment when she sees one of her dresser drawers open and a little uprooted, maybe Jungeun’s a thief. She looks onto her nightstand to find a water glass and a sticky note with genuine sophisticated chicken scratch writing on it. The writing is angular, the lead a little on the dark side, it’s small and made of a varying letter sizes, lacking consistency, even though there was seemingly enough time to write it. The note reads: “sorry, used your shower, and grabbed spare shirt, hope u dont mind. last night was awesome, come to kitchen for food. -j”   
Heejin smiles, so she did stay, judging by the noises coming from the kitchen. That was new, but friends make breakfast for each other all the time, it was a lowkey thing to do.   
She hops in the shower, a moderately fast one to just not have the anxiousness of Jungeun waiting with fresh food. She whips a brush through her dark locks and throws on a big pink sweater and jeans as she walks to the kitchen and sits on the unused portion of the counter the swimmer doesn’t occupy.   
For whatever she’s making, the kitchen frankly looks better than its state last night. There’s a lot more variables resting on the counter than when she herself cooks. Now there’s an egg carton, Greek yogurt, salt and pepper, garlic powder, chopped ingredients… Heejin is utterly clueless when it comes to cooking and mostly has Hyunjin cook for her, risks burning the apartment down, or eats leftover takeout. She’s barely had any homemade meals since she last left home.  
“G’Morning,” Jungeun grins, her hands on chopsticks as she stirs ingredients together.  
“Hey—“ Heejin takes in the grinning girl. She’s just wearing one of Heejin’s dad’s old shirts for now. It’s big and hangs down to the mid thigh of her blue jeans, but her suspenders still manage to be seen. It’s still hot. The shorter girl can’t say she remotely cares about the shirt anyways. “You can keep the shirt, but what about your crop top?”  
The suggestive tone brings a chuckle from the swimmer as she shrugs her broad shoulders and scratches her neck. “Oh, yeah well you know, it just wasn’t for tod—“  
“Oh my god, your neck!” Heejin yelps, she lunges towards a surprised Jungeun to inspect the dark purples splotched across her neck. She was nowhere near as gentle as she thought she was—stupid, drunk, Heekki. “I’m so sorry! I—I uhmm….”  
The other girl’s head is raised to the ceiling as concerned thumbs run over her neck on the love marks from last night. She gives an amicable laugh,”Heejin? It’s okay, no big deal.”  
“Uhm, yeah, but you’re gonna...you’re a swimmer… people are gonna see these… I don’t know if you want that though?” The shorter girl replies, these were full on hickeys that could probably put her in jail for domestic abuse—  
“Don’t be ridiculous, you won’t go to jail for something consensual.”   
Heejin is taken aback. “I said that out loud?”  
“Yeah,” Jungeun continues. “It’s okay. I’m okay with people seeing them, I knew what was happening last night. If anything Jiwoo will celebrate me getting laid. And besides, no one will know it’s you to call the police on anyways.”  
Heejin lets out a weak laugh, still thumbing the sensitive skin. It’s dry, probably from constantly being in the water…and getting the life sucked out of it— she should at least do something about that… “I’ll be right back!”  
She launches out into her room again and swipes up a bottle of lotion she never really uses. She comes back and places it on the counter to see her one night stand adding fucking yogurt to the beaten eggs. She screams for the second time that morning,”What the hell?!?!”  
The swimmer jumps back, barely stopping the Greek yogurt container and bowl of eggs from spilling everywhere. She picks up a knife besides her with alarm,”What’s wrong?! What? Where?!”  
“Why in god’s name are you adding yogurt to the eggs?!” Heejin screeches.  
The taller looks taken aback, her grip on the knife relaxing as she sets it down. “W-What?”  
“The eggs,” the shorter chokes out. “Eggs and yogurt, they do not mix! What the actual fuck are you doing?”  
“Oh,” Jungeun heaves a sigh and very visibly deflates before resuming a little mixing. She slaps butter into a pan and turns to the other girl. “Eggs with yogurt, Heejin, they just get creamier and add protein—“  
“What?!” Heejin booms again, flabbergasted. “Jungeun—What’s your surname—-?”  
“Kim…?”  
“Kim Jungeun, don’t you dare just ‘eggs with yogurt, Heekki.’ me! That’s going to taste awful!”  
Jungeun shakes her head with a smile before pouring the disgusting eggs into the heated pan anyways and starting to scramble them with a spatula. “Just try it, Heekki, it’s good.”  
“Bet my ass no, Jungie.” Heejin rolls her eyes up so far to Heaven and back around to Hell before her eyes click back into focus on the lotion bottle. “I uhm, are you doing anything right now?” She asks stupidly, wanting to smack herself into orbit.   
The older hums with an amused tone before popping in two slices into the toaster and shoving the dishes in the sink. She stirs the yogurt eggs. “What is it?”   
The younger grips the bottle, making a series of inhuman sounds trying to miserably bypass further embarrassment. “I-uhm, uhm, you—argh, neck—no, skin...it’s dry… I have lotion—-moisten-hydrate…you!... Moisty!”   
“Hold on. Where are your plates?”   
“There.” She points.  
There’s a scuffle of getting to plates, turning off a burner, buttering toast, and putting the eggs onto the toast. “So, do you wanna try that again?”  
Heejin has absolutely no idea what she’s doing when she suddenly opens the lotion bottle, let alone putting it onto her own hands. She takes two steps to Jungeun and places her fingertips gently on the irritated, abused skin. A generous amount of lotion is now lumped and globbed onto the pale column before her. She fears she’s overstepping her bounds, but when she looks up, Jungeun’s eyes are closed… she looks relaxed….  
“Go ahead…” she whispers. Her eyes flutter and she sighs quietly. “Breakfast won’t burn…” Her elbows lean back onto the counter as she faces backwards towards the other girl.   
Heejin nods, even though the older can’t see the action. She carefully lets her hands wander and cup the back of the swimmer’s neck as her thumbs make gentle work. They slowly rub in ginger circles to get the moisturizer in, it could easily turn sensual if not for the light hearted nature and calm air. Her fingers finally start massaging around her neck, to her exposed collar bones and even below the dipped neckline of the shirt with the excess lotion.   
It isn’t one she uses often, it’s smells like freshly cut grass with a hint of spice. She never liked the smell until now, maybe it just wasn’t her thing. It could totally be a Jungeun thing though.   
She strokes one more circle around what she thinks is the first hickey she gave due to how large and dark it was before whispering,”You’re, uh, you’re good now…”  
Jungeun tilts her head forward. “Breakfast?” A crooked smile follows.   
“Yeah—“  
“Heejin! I’m home!”  
“Shit!” Heejin whisper screams. She turns, grabs Jungeun’s shoulders and shoves her back into her own room. “Lowkey! Shit—blow up! Stay hidden!”  
She quickly says a silent prayer that Hyunjin doesn’t find out because she will tell Jinsoul and Jinsoul is probably into Jungeun and Jiwoo and Sooyoung will find out and then Chaewon and Hyejoo—  
“You cooked?” Hyunjun questions as she enters. Her keys rattle onto the counter. “How is the apartment still up? Are you alone…?”  
Heejin’s heart thunders as her door closes. “N-Yeah, I just used my phone for a YouTube video… I wanted to try—“  
“Oh?” Her roomate seems unconvinced as she grabs a plate and sits down at the table. “Is that why you haven’t responded to the group chat?”  
“Y-yeah. It’s just me. What’s going on in the chat?” Heejin grabs a plate and fork. She sits down stiffly and rubs a spot on her neck.   
“The cops came and busted that party you and a bunch of the others went to, I’m guessing you left early.” Hyunjin takes a heaping bite of eggs on toast, humming in satisfaction. “Damn, what happened to you?! This is fucking delicious!”  
“R-Really?” Heejin swears her eyes are going to bulge out of her head. There is no way in ever after Hell that those yogurt eggs are good enough to leave Hyunjin barking in delight. “A-Are you sure?”  
“Oh,” the other girl rumbles. “It’s fucking great, they’re creamy, seasoned well—the chives and the bell pepper—try your own creation. It’s fucking good.”  
The shorter girl mumbles a curse at Jungeun if they’re bad and takes a meek bite.   
Good. Fucking. God.   
They’re good, great, wondeful, magnificent. Heejin was so fucking wrong. “Oh, shit. They are good.”  
“See? You have to make this again to prove to everyone else you can actually cook, well too.” Hyunjin keeps stuffing her face. “Maybe getting laid awoke your cooking skills.”  
“I beg your pardon?” The older girl gags on her eggs.   
The younger gives a shrug, using her fork to point to her neck,” You’ve got some hickeys. Not terribly noticeable though, just this light. Who was it?”  
“Hyunjin!”   
“What? Come on, you haven’t been laid in forever. Just someone from the party?”  
Heejin stumbles within her own mind to come up with a fathomable excuse. “Uh, yeah? We left at like two or something.”  
“Who was it?”  
She debates whether or not to tell Hyunjin because she will definitely tell Jiwoo and that will be a mess. But this is her apartment, she could threaten to kick her out if she tells…? No, that wouldn’t fly. She’ll just lie. “I think they were from an outta town college…? I don’t remember where or their name. Maybe Kim?”  
“Bullshit,” Hyunjin laughs, sending the other into panic. “Everyone has fucking Kim as a surname, Kim Chaewon, Kim Jungeun, Kim Minjoo, Kim Jiwoo, Kim Sihyeon, Kim Hyunjin. Please, you probably just hooked up with Ryu but trying to cover.”  
Heejin lunges to her roommate and smacks her hand causing egg to fall to the floor. “That is bullshit. Me, Ryu, fucking done. Don’t bring that up, you know how I feel about that.”   
The other girl has a petrified look and nods. “Sorry about that...uhm, I’m going to clean up the eggs on the floor. I probably deserved that…Sorry, Heejin.”  
It’s just how committed she was to her last relationship. Sure, she’s young, she was young, but how could something feel so impossibly right? She at least planned for a long lasting relationship, maybe even marriage. The two of them got along smartly. But Heejin was left to fall on her own as time passed. This aching hole came to their relationship and suddenly she was clingy, jealous, too emotional…. She felt like suddenly she had no power and no control as it spiraled and eventually hit the ground.   
Hyunjin nods, sighing as the subject passes. The younger has taken to the floor, trying scoop the egg bits up.   
Here’s Heejin’s chance to get Jungeun out of the apartment. She sprints off to her room and opens the door. Her guest is sprawled out on her bed typing on her phone when the shorter yanks her to her feet.   
“Heejin?” Jungeun says with a soft tone. “What is it? Is she gone?”  
“Not quite, but you can still get outta here on the DL.” Heejin pulls her out the door and to the hall. Hyunjin is still on the floor trying to get all the crumbs and wiping it down, she sings to herself as the two pass behind her.   
Heejin is in such a rush, but she still notes how clever Jungeun is to match her footsteps with her own to make sure it only sounds like one person. She grabs her boots by the door and turns around.   
They’re out of view now and the younger still has her hand attached to the other. It’s soon replaced with a slip of paper and the older whispers,”Thanks Heejin. I had a good time. Let’s do it again.”  
A feathery kiss on the cheek and Jungeun is gone.


	4. Boxes We Don’t Fit In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is something old i’m just throwing out here with the announcement that i have a CuriousCat and a Twitter, both under @FPinkington ! please go follow me and let’s please talk~~
> 
> As an icebreaker for my CC, tell me what heelip prompts you want and why you think heelip is grossly underrated.
> 
> Catch y’all later!
> 
> TW:: https://twitter.com/fpinkington?s=21
> 
> CC:: https://curiouscat.qa/FPinkington

Heejin hangs her head lowly, trying to disappear to her locker. She’s quick to pack up her bag and hurry to grab her supplies. She doesn’t want to get caught by her classmates. She wants to go home, cry to her mother and father of her horrible school life and the torment she receives from other girls. She shrugs further into her blazer and pulls down the green pleated skirt. 

She moved into the city from the country just last year. She missed her farm with fresh cut grass, the big red barn, the horses, and picket fences. Heejin doesn’t understand what makes her so much different to the point that she has no friends and is now just getting bullied. She’s lonely, fed up, and lonely again. 

She’s not like whatever those Withers are and she isn’t from “The Slums”. Heejin is a good girl, she doesn’t skip school, have dirt on her uniform, or get in fights. She’s trying to stay steady. Her family is fine, except for her sick papa, she isn’t poor, she comes from the good side of the town. She’s never even gone towards the city outskirts in fear of the stories of poor gangs and violence. She tries to be nice, she smiles, or she used to. She sees the supposed bad people laughing though, laughing and smiling while having a good time. Maybe they aren’t bad, the world just thinks of them wrong. Everyone is so quick to throw them into boxes, maybe they just don’t fit.

She’s done as she’s told. She stays away from the “Withers” and the south east of the town. She never goes out at night because people from “The Slums” will try to rob her or gang up and do horrible things. She is not nearly as horrible as these seeming heathens. No, Heejin is a humble, well mannered, albeit misunderstood girl. 

It’s soaking wet outside with the drumming patter of the rain on the school’s roof. But the pleasant sound is drowned as the bell rings signaling the end of the day and instead comes the loud taps of students in the halls. 

“Heejin-ah!” Calls someone down the hall. 

She looks down and sees Haerim and Seojung giving her a devilish smile, they’re coming for her. They’re coming for her. Maybe they’ll drag her to the toilets and nearly drown her again, lock her in a dumpster for two hours, or make her do twenty push ups with Seojung’s shoe pressing stains into her back. With the two, her pains came new and repeated, she wish it would stop.

Haerim yells,”Heejin-ah! I’ll count to ten for you to run!” She cruely stomps her foot, alerting the surrounding students that the chase has started. No one dares stand up for Heejin. Just a farm girl. 

Shit. 

Heejin grabs the rest of her school work and shoves it in her bag, zipping it and bolting down the hall. 

Run. Run. Run. 

She sprints with no regard to the teachers that yell at her to slow down because she needs to run. Run until she gets home and her old fashioned papa comes out with a shotgun to scare them off. Her papa’s health had been on a steady decline in the meanwhile which is why they moved to the city. Even though he was weak and ailing, he would still protect her. 

Heejin high tails it out the back doors, this is fucking scarier than when she’s gone hunting and all those encounters with bears or moose. This was hell. These girls are going to do something horrible, she feels it. 

The school’s back doors clang and fling open as she bolts towards the back alleys leading towards her house. It’s faster this way so she won’t be held up by people. She climbs the fence and hops over the top in a clumsy attempt to save time. 

Lucky for her, it’s raining hard, few people are out. She’s terrified of thunder and lightning because lightning once struck their barn and shredded it to red splinters in the blink of an eye. Nature was scary and it horrified Heejin, in the lightning strike her favorite horse died in the rubble. 

Her feet slap the ground in hard thuds as she breathes, in and out. She’d like to think she can run and is semi athletic, but when two soccer players are on your back, you can only hope. Seojung is close and Haerim too, she stands little chance. 

Especially when Seojung grips her backpack sending her tumbling back into a puddle, ruining her neatly ironed uniform and soaking her school work. Her bag is kicked in front of her after being unzipped. Heejin tries to hold back tears when she tries to collect herself on her knees, but Haerim catches up and kicks her so her left knee scrapes just right and starts to bleed. 

“Heejin-ah!” Seojung smirks, hands on her hips in victory. Haerim looks satisfied as she kicks up the nasty water onto her beloved object of torture. 

Heejin frowns, backing against a trash can by the alley wall. She holds her soaked backpack as an attempt to block off whatever horrible things are going to happen. The sting of her knee is not helping the glimmers in the corners of her eyes.

“You’re lucky today because we have to go to soccer practice soon, but it was a nice warm up. Practice ends in a few hours…” Haerim frowns at the notion of not having enough time to make Heejin’s life more of a hell. 

“How’s this?” Seojung calls from the side of a dumpster, a large, soaked cardboard box is brought into Heejin’s view. “We put her in it and come back after practice to come and make sure she hasn’t moved.”

“N-No—please,” Heejin stutters. She absolutely does not want to be here in a thunderstorm in the darkening dusk in a box. 

“—Shut up, I’m not done.” Seojung yells and kicks Heejin in the shin. She taps her foot, forcefully pulls Heejin’s bag away from her, and puts the cardboard box on top of the girl. “We’re taking a picture so we know if you move or not. If you want your school stuff back, you have to wait—“

The poor girl yells from inside the pitch black box,”—No! Please, you don’t understand—“

Someone kicks her again and she hears a picture being taken. 

Haerim declares,”Wait here, farm girl. We’ll be back and give you your shit back if you’re good, which means no telling anyone or crying. If you aren’t good, we’ll kick the shit out of you and keep your bag. Stay the fuck here.”

Steps are heard walking on the cold asphalt and Heejin tries to sob quietly.

Hell. 

... 

Jungeun does not like beating the shit out of people, but sometimes you have to. Fighting is something she’s taken professional classes in along with other awful street experience. These two assholes tried to scam her uncles bakery and refused to leave him alone, sometimes a little street talk will help with that. 

They’re sloppy guys, from the outskirts of the town, The Slums, the poor district, but Jungeun is too. She lives with an alcoholic and abusive father in a house about to collapse, it’s leaning too far to the left and looks like it would never pass any safety standards. But it’s The Slums, no one cares about regulations there. It’s only gangs, fights, murders, bad, no good people. 

At least everyone who isn’t from The Slums thinks that. Really, it’s only people scraping by. Yes, the gangs are violent and bad things happen with the groups, but who can blame someone when society doesn’t take them. Eventually one needs to believe in something so they do what they’ve always been told they are. 

It’s a vicious cycle and it’s the people not from The Slums that have made it so toxic. Jungeun wishes people would be kinder and give second chances. Everyone is trying to scrape by to the next meal, next rent due, next day of struggling to live. Still, everyone higher than them, even just a little higher, by the pettiest skin of their teeth, call them Withers. Withers because they cease to flourish, but it’s only because no one will help them. 

Jungeun tries to prove that The Slums don’t make people bad, but it’s other people poisoning their water. The Withers are trying to be better, no one will let them. It fucking sucks. Jungeun does her part though, she takes freezing showers everyday despite the financial strain (personal hygiene is necessary), she walks or drives her little neighbor, Yerim, to school in the morning to make sure nothing happens to her. She gives homeless people money in their cups, even if it means that she herself will go without food tonight. She studies hard and does her best in her North side school. 

She was accepted on a whim, a suggestion by her friend, Sooyoung, to start making The Slums better by “clearing our names and being good” at school. It was a charity kid thing which Jungeun apparently matched up with. Grants would be given for being so gracious as to give a low life Slums girl a chance at a higher education. People ate that shit up, no one wanted to be mean to the girl who was “beating all odds to become a good person”. She was all over the North and The Slums’ news as a hero to both. 

People just saw her tattered clothes and scarred knuckles and assumed she was bad turned good. 

It might be true, but Jungeun thinks the world should stop making assumptions and start asking questions to form an understanding. 

They didn’t know that her mother was a good one until she killed herself in the bathtub. They didn’t know she struggled to put ointment on her belt whipped back half of the time, her knuckles were torn and awful from stopping the so called good hearted northerners from raping her in the city (“She’s a Wither-Slum-Slut, we can fuck her. No one will care if she’s a Wither.” Jungeun fought with all the hell she’s ever had and beat them to a pulp. She cared, she cared for herself. She would not be used.) She tried to save up her own money to bring her neighborhood children toys around the holidays. Maybe Jungeun was always good, but the world was always bad. 

The boys she is fighting, they’re maybe a little tipsy. They clumsily yell and toss their limbs haphazardly to try and land a hit. 

She sighs. Her uncle on her mother’s side is one of the only Withers that owns a shop in the heart of the city, so he has become a target. Jungeun finds it scary how somehow everyone can differentiate between everyone and someone of the Slums. She begged her uncle to move out of the city outskirts and inward to somewhere better but her replied with, “I am born and raised here. I am proud of the Outskirts and I love everyone here. I will not leave.”

Uncle probably wouldn’t approve, but after repeated attempts at bullying him, Jungeun was fed up like hell and took them to a back alley. Just because she has strong morals didn’t mean she always follows them. Being from The Slums, learning to fight goes hand in hand with counting and reading, you just learn from everyone. 

Just when Jungeun thinks she’s done, one of them leaps up with a broken beer bottle as the other one charges her. She’s pinned up and struggles against the boys when the glass bottle slices, basically crudely tears across the lower part of her nose bridge.

“How you like me now bitch?” The bottle one asks as they let her go and smirk. 

Jungeun leans forward, feeling the awful sting as crimson flows down. “Fuck you.” She presses forward and punches him until his nose is broken and her knuckles split and spill more blood. He passes out and drops to the wet ground as she looks to his friend, ”Stay the hell away from here unless you’d like nose surgery too. “

The boy runs off. 

Jungeun’s shoulders sag as she touches her nose, and assesses her damage. This fucking bites, lucky she wasn’t wearing her glasses. She holds her hoodie sleeve to try and stop the bleeding, fortunate or not, her hoodie is red enough to only make the blood look like rain water soaked through. 

She picks up her black leather jacket from the ground and slings it over her shoulder, placing her oversized, grey, knit cap on as well. Her steps are quick as she walks the half a block down to the bakery and through the back door. She fumbles in a one handed battle to fish her keys out of the jacket until she can get it in the hole and open the door. 

It’s just past 6:45, there's a faint grey to the sky as blue hangs above it, just around twilight with heavy showers. Typically they’re open, but some internal renovations have been going on so they’ve closed earlier and gone home. The pastries are made in early mornings before sunrise even bothered to streak the sky in pretty pinks. 

It’s empty like Jungeun expects as she grabs a bandaid and rag, fleeing to the staff bathroom. 

She sees herself in the mirror and sighs, her face a bloody mess and albeit a little more than disheveled. It’s a tedious task as she cleans herself up, blotting the rag to rid her face of the blood and letting the gash breathe to stop bleeding. In the meanwhile, she wraps her knuckles in white bandages and leans against the wall for a good five minutes. She catches her breath and let’s the rest of the fight’s adrenaline die out. 

Jungeun’s eyes flick open soon after and she looks back in the mirror to apply the bandaid. She feels stupid but she’s aware that it might look worse if she goes around with the gash. It’s a strange thickish triangle on the lower bridge of her nose. One side of the wound is wider, probably where the bottle initially struck. She carefully applies the bandaid, it’s stupid and kiddish, black with yellow star explosions scattered on it, but she almost likes it. She slides on her thick, squared, Coke-bottle glasses with the wide black frames that make her look dorky, especially with the bandaid right below where they rest. She gives a sad smile and stares.

After pulling herself together, it’s almost 7:00. She readjusts the grey beanie over her blond hair and shrugs on her jacket. Her backpack was dropped off at her house, courtesy of her uncle after being told his niece had “friendly matters to deal with”. 

She exits out the alley again in the rain and locks up. The rain sprinkles, but thunder keeps booming in the distance. 

Jungeun walks the longer way home, just past her school and surrounding shops to avoid going back home to her broken father. She’s still a good fifteen minutes away when she walks by an alley hearing whimpering sounds from it. 

At first she thinks it’s the stray cats hooking up again—yeah, bad experience, especially with Yerim, but it’s coming from a quivering cardboard box with a shoe poking out from it. Maybe it’s homeless hobos hooking up again? Yeah, at least that one was with Sooyoung and Hyejoo and not Yerim, still traumatic, even if they were far from innocent. Maybe it’s just a box. 

Jungeun walks away. 

Maybe it’s more than a box.

…

Heejin shivers in the box, it’s soggy and soaked through as the rain hasn't let up and the thunder booms again. She screams at that and then tries to cover her mouth and calm down but she really cannot right now. It’s been hours and her brown hair is so wet, it sticks to her face in a wet curtain and furthers her misery.

Tap. Tap. 

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Someone mutters something along the lines of: “I ought to just check it out anyways…stupid box...”

Oh no! Someone was walking towards her, were they back? Had she moved the box too much. Heejin’s tears once again fall hard and fast as she covers her mouth trying not to panic. She hears soft breathing outside of the box and can’t help but shiver because it’s spring water and she’s really cold. 

Slowly, a corner of the box is lifted up, revealing a messy blonde girl kneeling with a grey beanie with curious and shocked eyes, there's a bandaid, dorky black with a little pattern placed on her nose, her knuckles wrapped in—

“No!” Heejin yelps and pulls the cardboard box back down remembering what Haerim and Seojung told her if she moved. She’s going to get punished.

She stays like that for a minute hoping that the stranger will disappear when she hears her voice,”No? You like being soaked in a box you don’t fit in?”

Heejin huffs, she winces as the thunder booms. The stranger had kind eyes, despite looking rather frighteningly pretty and intimidating, her eyes stayed kind and innocent of malintent. 

“You don’t like the thunder and you’re shaking nonstop, why are you in there?” The stranger insists. 

“I-I was told to.” Heejin stutters out lowly. 

The girl sighs,”Oh. Okay, well I don’t think you should follow that instruction then… Are you okay?”

“I don’t know…”

There’s a beat of silence before the thunder roars again. Heejin lets out a sad little cry. 

The stranger clears her throat with a calmed voice,”Would you like to come out of the box and away from the rain and thunder?”

The girl in the box dumbly nods her head before realizing it can’t be seen. “Y-Yes, but I’m not supposed to leave.”

“Oh, why not?”

“Well, uhm, you see…” Heejin mumbles,”I-my classmates decided to keep me in the box until they came back from soccer practice to give me back my homework, so I’ve been here since the end of school…”

The girl frowns, Heejin thinks purely based off of her voice,”I’m sorry about that. Do you go to the school nearby? I go there too.”

“Yes.”

The corner of the box is lifted once again, slower with the girl staring through her glasses at Heejin. Her eyes are a dark enchanting brown, asking her to come closer, they stay steady on her as the box is slowly lifted entirely off of Heejin’s soaked form. The stranger frowns for real, taking in the sight before her,” I’m a sophomore, yourself?”

The brunette trembles as she stands up on stiff and cold limbs,”M-Me too. Why haven’t I seen you b-before?”

The stranger gingerly takes her arm to help her stand as her knees look as though they’ll soon buckle. “I think I’m rather bashful, I don’t have many friends at school. They don’t really like me much.”

Me too, Heejin wants to say, she instead continues with,”I-I’m Heejin.”

“I’m Jungeun, we should be friends.” The blonde smiles before pushing up her glasses with her free hand before her attention turns back to her new companion. “Goodness, you’re freezing--” 

BOOM!

The thunder strikes so furiously that even Jungeun flinches as it roars and then echoes off of the brick city buildings. Soon after lightning strikes, purple and bright, Jungeun would call it gorgeous and take a photo if Heejin flings herself into her arms in a desperate-tight hug, whining at the sound of nature. Jungeun tenses at the sudden movement, but slowly places her arms on Heejin’s upper back, rubbing comforting circles. The moment stays like that, Heejin in particularly warm arms with comfort coming like a kind rush with pleasant tones of heat. Yes, the thunder still cries, and she still flinches, but maybe if she burrows into Jungeun it will go away.

They stay in the calming moment. Heejin stays close like that because it’s been so long since she has been able to hug someone without fear of breaking them, without fear she’ll be made a mock of, it felt nice to have someone at all. She closes her eyes, she is vaguely aware that she still might be shivering.

Her head is then cautiously touched and her head feels a lot warmer—oh. She brings her gaze upward to see Jungeun putting her beanie onto her own head, she smiles down at Heejin who can’t stop the words from falling out of her mouth,”Whathappenedtoyournoseandmaybeliketherestofyourbody?”

Jungeun chuckles and runs a hand through her own hair before Heejin takes the bandaged body part and looks at her skeptically, mostly in worry and curiosity, no judgement or ill will as far as she can see. She full on smiles because this moment is great, dorky, charming, and there’s a pretty girl grabbing at her hand and that pretty girl has really pretty charm marks. “Ah, well, you know, just some occupational and living hazards.” It wasn’t a lie.

Heejin raises an eyebrow,”Be more specific?”

Jungeun’s smile tugs down a little bit,” You know how I said they don’t like me much, Heejin-ah?”

“Yes…?’

She clears her throat to continue,”Well, they specifically don’t like where I’m from and they made bad assumptions based off of my home life and to be honest I can’t really blame them.”

Heejin still looks a little confused and it strikes the blonde that she is new and that she is not fully accustomed to rigid city culture. She speaks quickly,” HeejinI’mfromTheSlumssotheythinkthatI’mabadperson….I-I’m not…”

The brunette stares off for a second, contemplation flashing across her face. She thinks about it. That was the supposed bad part of town with the bad people. She had heard of all of these rumors, but Jungeun was already so kind…. and warm. She had patient, almost princely eyes. If it was so bad…. but they were only rumors, misconceptions and stupid gossips. “We’re the same.” Heejin whispers.

The girl with glasses frowns and cranes her ear to Heejin’s mouth,” I beg your pardon?”

“We’re the same.”

“Oh? Really?” Jungeun asks, looking amused, intrigued and maybe a little confused. She reitterates the brunette’s words,”Expand.” She stares at Heejin’s side profile with the faint traces of admiration as the shorter girl collects her thoughts.

Heejin breathes in and leans her beanie clad forehead forward so it touches Jungeuns. She flinches at a crack of thunder, Jungeun tightens her hug a little bit to give patient reassurances” People, people make all theses stupid gossips and assumptions about us when they don’t realize who we actually are. They don’t like us because we’re different and so they don’t want us to be different but they want us to be stupid and the same. But we can’t change and so they-they they—“ Heejin searches for the right way to say it.

“—Try and put us into a box we don’t fit in.” Jungeun finishes with a smile.

Heejin could kiss her right about now. “Y-Yeah. That.”

…

They’re walking after their conversation together, blocks away from the alley and towards Jungeun’s house to retrieve her bag and then go to Heejin’s home to complete their homework. It was decided that they would photocopy the worksheets and share materials to complete their assignments.

Apparently soccer practice wouldn’t end until 8:00, they were planning on making Heejin wait three and a half hours for her school work in horrid weather. Jungeun stated that she could tersesly tell off the soccer players tomorrow and make sure the country girl wouldn’t be bothered again. But Heejin hoped that maybe Jungeun would stay around… just in case...

The rain and thunder had stopped, but Jungeun still peeled off Heejin’s soaked sweater and shrugged her into her own leather jacket that smelled pleasant, almost of fresh cut grass and a hint of soap. She carried Heejin’s sweater herself and while Heejin thought they were around the same size, Jungeun had broad swimmer’s shoulders that made the jacket toasty prior to her own use. Her hands were just as pleasantly warm as well.

“Don’t worry,” Jungeun gives that same grin with her eyes turning into little crescents behind her thick nerd glasses,” They don’t wanna be the kids that beat up the charity kid.”

The brunette had learned that Jungeun had gained a scholarship to the school which provided a rare glimpse at eventually escaping “The Slums” to a better life. There seemed to be an open and kinder community to it, one that was less about competition to see who had the nicest lawn and biggest TV, but working together to survive to the next day and live through the next tragedy. But it wasn’t always like that, some people were competitive over there too, some were violent and fed up. It seemed like Jungeun took the good away though.

“So you’ll hang out with me and be my friend?” Heejin asks, almost timidly.

Jungeun stops abruptly and turns to the shorter brunette. “Heejin.” She states as she grabs her hand. “I saved you from a cardboard box, holding your sweater, you are waering my clothes, I am coming over to do homework and telling off assholes and hanging out with you at school. I will not be your friend. I am your friend. “ She adds a cute and almost shy grin before finding Heejin’s shoes very interesting.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” 

They both think, ‘Maybe we can be more than friends.’

….

They ended up jogging the last miles to Jungeun’s house, the crooked lean, a little too far one way and fading paint with gross overgrown plants and dead grass. It looks poor. It makes her feel poor. Jungeun rubs her neck like she’s embarrassed, but Heejin holds her eyes with a steady gaze while taking her now hot hand off of her neck,” It’s nice, it’s you. Your home, Jungeun.”

The taller girl gives a weary and tired smile,” Stay here.” She makes her way to the side of the tilting shack she sleeps in. It’s not home though, she could never call it home after her mother slit her own wrists in it, not when laughter died and darkness came, and most certainly not when her own blood started to stain because her own father spilled it. It wasn’t home. The side of the shack is where her uncle placed her backpack, car keys, and apparently two loaves of fresh French bread, she’ll give one to Hyunjin when she sees her soon. She grabs the other loaf and brings it with her as she walks back to the charming brunette, who looks incredibly good in her grey knit cap and leather jacket that is definitely a little big in that girlfriend kind quality and it makes Jungeun grin for real as she waves the bread in hand.

“What’s that?” Heejin asks, notioning to the loaf.

“French bread—“

“French?”

Jungeun’s eyes narrow in confusion, is something wrong with it—-

“If it’s French, count me in!” Heejin sings out playfully taking the taller arm as they continue walking. “France is my dream vacation, dream city, dream.”

“Really? Tell me about it.”

They snack on the bread at Heejin’s insistence as they get into Jungeun’s pick up truck. It’s an old 1967 Ford F100, rickety and red with paint and rust. The seats are a worn reddish pink and a three person seat bench in the front. Heejin likes it, it smells like Jungeun’s jacket, but stronger, fresh cut grass with a hint of spiced soap. She tries to subtly breathe in the scent as the blonde pushes up her glasses and jams her key into the ignition. It’s kind of attractive how Jungeun’s bandaged hands slide over the machinery with experienced and precise familiarity on what her next action will be. 

Heejin tells her her address and they drive along the twilight lit roads. The car has a pleasant hum to it, a low guttural sound as they put. Jungeun’s a good driver. “Jungeun, does your car have a name?”

The blonde girl’s eyes flick away from the road towards the brunette with a blush tinting her cheeks. “TheJungieMobile.”

Heejin suppresses a laugh, repeating in confirmation of what she’s heard,” The Jungie Mobile?”

“Yes…”

“How’d you name it?”

Jungeun looks at Heejin again, giving her an almost bunny-like toothy grin,” My little neighbor Yerim named it for me. She rides in here with me sometimes and she wanted to name it. She really likes superheroes and then took her older sister’s nickname for me.”

“How old is Yerim?” What about her sister? Heejin wonders.

The girl with glasses raises her eyes in thought,” I think she’s a fifth grader? So like ten? Jinsoul is eighteen, her sister. I just help them out sometimes, single father and all. They’re nice.. you know? Just great friends to have around, like family.” 

Heejin relaxes at family, she gives a tentative half smile. “That’s very nice.”

‘You’re very nice.’ Jungeun thinks.

“You are too.”

She startles forward, but keeps control of the car, barely before letting out a flustered,” I beg your pardon?”

The bunny girl gives another toothy grin,”You said ‘You’re very nice.’ I think you are too.”

“I thought I said that in my head…”

“It’s okay,” That damn smile comes for the blonde’s heart,”..... Jungie.”

Heejin likes the way the little nickname rolls off of her tongue, soft and cute off of its original holder for which it was named.

“Thanks…. Heekki…”

It’s Heejin’s turn to be confused as she stares at Jungeun in bewilderment, a comical wide eyed gaze that makes her fear that her eyes might pop out of her head,”I-I beg your pardon?!”

Jungeun gives a smug side eyed smirk that makes Heejin weak,” Thanks Heekki, for thinking I’m nice too.”

“Oh, so we have nicknames now?” Heejin stares at Jungeun and has to resist laughing at how thick her glasses are from the side. 

The driver looks over with a winsome glimmer in her eye,” Yeah, Heekki, we have nicknames now. Jungie and Heekkie Versus the World, that’s what we would be if we were an a comic book today was issue number one...or it could be an album and this is our first song.”

“Really?”

“Jungie and Heekki Versus the World.” Jungeun repreats.

They pull up to the house and the brunette grabs her hand, looking at her with eyes that make her want to give Heejin the world, especially when she says,” Pinky promise? We’ll make it through the world together?”

Their pinkies find each other’s and intertwine. Jungeun’s free hand pushes the beanie from slipping down into Heejin’s eyes as she whispers,” Pinky promise... Jungie and Heekki.”

…


End file.
